I finished the French Lieutenant's Woman yesterday and Still of the Night this afternoon. I don't really want to write about them, but if I don't now I'll never get around to it.
Last night I watched Batman Begins. It was awesome. But it was really weird Meryl Streep wasn't in it. I kept expecting her to show up and beat the shit out of Katie Holms. That would have been awesome.
FLW wasn't bad. I didn't think it was as good as KvK, but it wasn't bad either. The plot's hard to describe but not really that confusing. It's a movie within a movie. Most of the screen time is set sometime in the Victorian period. I hate calling it that. Victoria ruled for 63 years, from 1837 to 1901. Lumping all that into one era just seems unfair to all the history that happened in those 63 years. Look at the past 63 years. Life in 1945 was totally different than it is now. Calling all of it the Victorian Period is way too general.
Now I want to stick it in a slightly more specific time period. The theories of Darwin are mentioned quite a bit in the movie, they could have been mentioned more in my opinion. Darwin published his On the Origin of the Species in 1859, so it must have happened after that. Now the characters are only floating in a 42 year period instead of 63. I feel slightly better.
Okay - that was a tangent. As I was saying, most of the screen time is sometime in the late 1800s watching the tale of this scientist (Jeremy Irons) and a scarlet woman (Meryl). A bit of time is spent with the actors making the movie about the scientist and scarlet woman. These two are having an affair and their story kind of mirrors their characters. A movie within a movie. Despite the fact that the original book the movie was based on had three alternate endings (making it possibly the first Chose Your Own Adventure novel ever) the historical plot is kind of predictable and melodramatic. Because the modern lovers aren't confined to Victorian prudishness I thought their story would have been way more interesting to explore them and what they go through, but we didn't spend much time with them.
Not much else to say. It's good, not really my kind of movie, but it's good. Meryl Streep wears the coolest cloak ever. Cooler than Lord of the Rings. Or, if you really want to be internet-geeky LotR. As I said before, this is my favorite Meryl hair so far. It's short and red and looks fantastic. Jeremy Irons wears some pretty awesome sweaters.
Still of the Night was fun. It's a thriller about this shrink (Roy Scheider) who's privately investigating the death of one of his patients with the patient's mistress (Meryl). Very exciting and dark creepy shadows and all that. Directed by the same guy who did Kramer vs. Kramer. I really liked it because I like mysteries and thrill stories. The ending was so entertaining, I was terrified. And it's a good surprise. It was definitely worth digging it up on ebay.
Now I'm forcing myself through Sophie's Choice. Not having fun. Don't get me wrong, it's a good movie, it's just so unhappy. It's like dinner at a restaurant. The waitress brings some happy for the appetizer, but the it's an entree of pain with a pain salad and side of pain. With pain and chocolate sauce for dessert. Meryl's great, with a pretty zany accent, but it's one of those 'this can't go well' movies. More when I finish it.
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